Captain Chris Dew and Captain Chris Eckert were joined by Brad Lemon (Oklahoma City, OK) and Adam Houcrmale (Albany, W. Va.) for a half day fishing trip aboard the 33' World Cat. They saw birds working near the Youpon reef so they put out Clark Spoons on #1 planers and played with the spanish mackerel all morning until they reached their limit. They wanted to throw plugs but every time they neared where the birds were diving the planers would trip.

So, for those who love spanish fishing, especially the fishermen with smaller boats who don't want to go way out to find kings, I'd suggest giving the near shore AR's a shot.

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Fished the Carolina Cat with a great family from right here in North Carolina today. The wind chopped the seas up a bit making the run a little tough, but the fishing conditions were fine. We started the day trolling near the Horseshoe area picking up a couple of kings and a mahi. Then a large amberjack hit one of the king rigs which made for a long and exciting fight. The kings and mahi bite slowed on the troll, so we anchored up over some structure looking for grouper. The amberjack started hammering the baits! Broke off a few in the structure, but we toughened up a bit and landed a few finely. At the last minute a nice mahi crushed a live bait on top and the dinner table was set! See ya on the water!

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C. D. Rhodes stopped by the OIFC and asked advice on king fishing the other day. Apparently the information he got was good! He went to the 90's with David and Tara Felder of Columbia, S.C. aboard the "First Born" on August 9th where Tara landed this 37 inch king. Tara is shown in the picture "seriously freakin' excited" just after the king was boated. They caught the 37 incher about a 1/2 mile SE of the 90's.

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I dont know about you guys but I am chomping at the bit for this weekend to get here. The 1st Annual Cape Fear Sailfish Classic is right around the corner and based on the weather report I am looking at right now, its gonna be a perfect weekend for the Brunswick/New Hanover small boat fleet to go out and work the Sails. I am hearing a lot of interest from folks and speaking with Bob Newell, it sounds like he is putting together quite the spread for the Captain's meeting Thursday night. He said something about BBQ and Ballyhoo... Guess we will have to be here to find out what that means.

I have had a lot of questions from folks wanting to enter and trying to find out how. The only way to do it right now is on the official website www.capefearsailfishclassic.com. There is a PDF file that can be printed off and fill it out. Bob mentioned that it is VERY important that there be at least 1 crew member from the boat here Thursday evening because there are some specifics that will need to be covered and items that are tournament required items that will need to be picked up. Look forward to seeing everyone here and a great weekend of fishing. See everyone out there this weekend.

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Below is a picture taken of a charter Captain Jeff Williamson (Get Busy/OIFC) had with a group from Greenville, S.C. Saturday. There were several undersized fish released. Captain Jeff assured me the fish were caught in shore, not on a reef, I didn't ask and he didn't share the exact location. What is important is that folks who are not comfortable with going outside can still have great success fishing inside.
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Capt. Rickey Beck

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I have posted details regarding the 2011 trip to the Galapagos we have recently announced. Click the link provided below to see details. While there is much more information to provide, my typing fingers need a break and hopefully this gives everyone a general idea of the expedition planned. Email captbarrett@oifc.com with questions and I will responds asap. Check out a few pics below.

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Brandon "Bone Crusher" Sauls struck a major blow today when he weighed a 7.6 lb flounder in at the OIFC to take 2nd place in the OIFC Rodeo just 2 tenths of a point behind the other half of the OIB Inshore Mafia... Kyle Hughes. As usual he has quietened the crowd, and is probability not done!

The "Crusher" said "I walked down the hill, just like the old bull and showed the young bulls how its done"! Let's not forget that the "Bone Crusher" has been around for a while and holds many championship belts. The OIB Mafia will not be easy to beat!

Now the gauntlet has been thrown the challengers have to step up to the plate and show what they are made of. This may be the beginning of an epic inshore battle.

However as many athelets have said.."2nd place is 1st loser". Kyle better watch out! Stay tuned!

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While Brandon Sauls was weighing in a 7.6 lb flounder at the OIFC, Rusty, Toby and Andy Russ were joined by Capt. Jeff Beck and me for some flounder fishing of our own on some of the artifical reefs. We weren't alone, as there were several other boats who had the idea.

We found some good sized pogies in the ICW just the other side of the Shallotte River. Many of the pogies were king fishing quality. But they did us little good, as it seemed the fishing had turned off. Rusty managed a good sized flounder to at least get the skunk out of the boat.

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The Cape Fear Sailfish Classic is almost here! In fact it's Aug 12-15th. The OIFC just received this picture a the Classic's Tshirt..which looks real good.

Up until this tournament, to my knowledge no one in this area has gone out and specifically targeted sails, yet we've had a bunch caught. We're all very anxious to see what happens during the Sailfish Classic...I'll definitely see you there.

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1st Mate Amber Simmons of the "Reel McCoy" sent some pictures of their last fishing trip. The group made up of Amber and Daniel Simmons, Courtney Waddell and Tim Gallimore fished in 100 ft of 82 degree water. The "Reel McCoy" limited out on grouper and Tim caught the cobia after several attempts on a king rod and live bait.
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Capt. Rickey Beck

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Pushed my 20ft. bay boat offshore yesterday...I ended up about 20 miles offshore and seeing a few flyers as soon as I hit my destination. I figured with flyers in the area some mahi mahi had to be close. Had a couple of short strikes and then a king drilled the bait. A few minutes after getting reset a cobia drilled another bait. After getting the cobia boated and reseting my spread a mahi mahi jumped all over my live pogy. The bite slowed and the south wind was starting to turn it up a notch. I hit a few ARs on the way in hoping to see some spade fish to shoot with my bow fishing equipment. Instead, the cudas were thick on the bouys, so I opted to run a few live baits by them and instant hook ups! Cudas can put on a show sometimes! A spanish also got ambitious and hit a large pogy on one of the AR's. See ya on the water!

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Captain Zach and Captain Steele took a half day charter made up the Corpening's, David and, Daniel, of Charlotte, and son/brother-in-law Adam Haselkeen of Boston to the Shark Hole today. They fished with pogies they caught in the OIFC's canal.Along with having a good time they guys landed a couple of mahi and spanish.

Today was Captain Zach's last charter of the summer as he's heading off to school. He'll be in Wilmington so he won't be too far away.

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Captain William Parker and Sam Steele of Waxhaw, N.C. fished the 90's the day and boated a 24.5 inch king and some spanish. Thet caught all the fish on a downrigger using frozen cigar minnows. They were Sam's 1st king and spanish.
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Capt. Rickey Beck

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On this beautiful Wednesday, Todd Helf, Robert Hughes and Brian Richard fished in 90-120 feet of water. As you can see they caught several 30-40 lb AJ's and Todd landed this American Snapper.
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Capt. Rickey Beck

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Stranger things have happened in the world of off shore fishing. The cobia hitting a sabiki rig wasn't exactly what happened. The crew of the OIFC Cat was jigging for bait and a cobia came up to the sabiki to check things out. He in fact brought along his big brother. I guess big brother got big by not being dumb. The nosey one ended up on the OIFC cleaning table.

The crew, Marc Tebben (Dayton, OH.), Jason Tebben (Charlotte, N.C.), Ed Conder (Charlotte, N.C.) and Joe Gliemmo (Columbus, OH.), spent their day fishing the Jungle and the Barges in search of kings. Though you could have closed your eyes and seen as many kings as they did, the group enjoyed a smooth day on the ocean catching spanish mackerel. All in all they had a good day, a great time and said they'd be back next year.

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July has come and gone, and now we find ourselves in the midst of August, which usually doesnt mean the hottest inshore fishing of the year. However, we have been hanging in there and catching some fishing throughout all of the hot weather and hot water. I've have probably spent more time refishing recently than anything else, and we have been rewarded with some good catches of reds along with a few bonus flounder thrown in from the same spots. On the flounder front, ther are certainly still some fish hanging around in the backwaters, but it seems that a lot of fish may have made the push to deeper water, and it wouldnt surprise me to see some big catches off some of the nearshore ARs soon. The trout have also made somewhat of a showing this past week, and which they are still somewahat scattered and hard to predict, they are certainly around, so you never know when a gator might show up.
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Capt. Kyle Hughes

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This past weekend the Doctor was out on the water looking for gators. The Doctor succeeded in finding a few. Two trout weighing over 4 lbs. and another over 5 lbs. This puts him in first place on the rodeo board knocking many of the local legends off the board all together. Talk about crushing bones...looks like somebody may be looking for a new name by the end of the season. Doctor says take two and add a third for good measure! See ya on the water!

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There has been a change in the standings in the speckled trout division. Jeff Wallen weighed in a 4.35 lb'r yesterday. This moved Branon "Bone Crusher" Sauls to 3rd and Knocked Captain Kyle Hughes off the board.

No more than I got this report posted Dr. Wallen weighed a 5.8 lb trout to knock Clay to 2nd By virtue of the rule which says only the biggest fish caught by a competitor can stay on the board, Brandon Sauls retains his 3rd place. How long are you going to take this abuse Brandon. Dr. Jeff is making you look bad. If a competitor could weigh in more than 1 fish in each division, Jeff would have 1st, 2nd and 3rd!